Richards Civil War Era Center

Richards Civil War Era Center

Stephen Berry, the Gregory Professor of the Civil War Era and co-director of the Center for Virtual History at the University of Georgia, will deliver a free public talk at 4 p.m. on Feb. 20 in 302 Pond Lab.

Judith Giesberg, professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of History at Villanova University, will deliver three lectures on “Know(ing) It When You See It:” Pornography and Sexual Culture in the Civil War North, for the 2014 Steven and Janice Brose Distinguished Lecture Series, on Nov. 6, 7 and 8. All lectures are free and open to the public at the Nittany Lion Inn.

The U.S. Constitution defines treason as levying war against the government and aiding and abetting its enemies. By that definition, every Confederate soldier in the Civil War -- as well as every political leader -- was a traitor, according to William A. Blair, College of the Liberal Arts Research Professor of History at Penn State. Yet no one was executed for treason, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was not even tried for the crime.

Lincoln sought to make sense of the Battle of Gettysburg with his address, which succeeded in galvanizing the North's resolve to see the war through. Bill Blair, director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Center and professor of history at Penn State, puts these events in perspective and shows how the effects of this battle would resonate for years to come.

For Penn State Trustee Hugh McAllister, the Battle of Gettysburg brought home the reality of war. While he was in Bellefonte awaiting the outcome of one of the bloodiest skirmishes of the Civil War, he also was concerned about his brother Robert, who served in the New Jersey Infantry as well as his nephew William, who fought with Confederate forces.

More than 700 men from Centre County joined Union forces after President Abraham Lincoln called for more able-bodied men to fight the rebellion from the South. These men formed the nucleus of the 148th Pennsylvania Infantry, which also became known as the Centre County regiment, and were led by Col. James A. Beaver, who would later become the 20th governor of Pennsylvania and serve as acting president of Penn State.

Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center have exceeded an ambitious fundraising goal of $3 million, after securing a $1 million challenge grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH). With the support of one of the NEH's largest We the People Challenge Grants and alumni philanthropy, the Richards Civil War Era Center has become a national leader in the study of not only the Civil War era, but also the larger struggle for American freedom ranging from slavery to civil rights.

The George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center will be hosting a graduate student workshop with David Perry, assistant director and editor-in-chief of the University of North Carolina Press, at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, March 20, in 102 Weaver Building. The Center also will host a talk entitled "The Normals Must Save the World: Women's Religious Identities in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era," by Kathi Kern, associate professor at the University of Kentucky at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 3 in 102 Weaver.

Carol Reardon, professor of military history at Penn State, will deliver the lectures on Civil War strategy, leadership and soldiers for the 2009 Steven and Janice Brose Distinguished Lecture Series in the Era of the Civil War, on March 19, 20 and 21, in Pattee Library's Foster Auditorium on Penn State's University Park campus.

Anthony Kaye, assistant professor of history at Penn State, has been awarded a 2009 fellowship of approximately $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write a book on Nat Turner's rebellion of 1831. An affiliate of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center. Kaye's book will use the Turner insurrection to introduce neighborhoods as a new perspective on slavery to a general audience.

The George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center within Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts has met its fund-raising goal of $1.1 million for the third year of its four-year challenge grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH). A recipient of one of the NEH's largest We the People Challenge Grants ever, the Richards Center aims to raise a total of $3 million by next February in order to capture $1 million in NEH funding. Over the first three years of the challenge, alumni and friends have committed a total of more than $2.4 million. "It's a wonderful moment to look back on our accomplishments and, now that we've done it three times, I'm confident we can do it once more through the generous financial support of alumni and friends of the center," said Penn State alumnus George Richards, who with his wife, Ann, endowed the center in 2002.